Just as the subject states, I sponsored the visual novel on kickstarter and haven't received any of the products rewarded to me or any answers to my requests for updates particularly concerning said rewards. I've tried emailing Mr Gallagher on multiple occasions and have tried be respectful and inquisitive on the subject but have been ignored or brushed aside. I enjoy the webcomic and I've supported him through the megatokyo gear site, but after the repeated inquiries, I'm at a loss on what to do? Can someone on this site direct me in the right direction? I know its been three years since the kickstarter funded the project, but I'd like to get atleast some sort of answer since I did pledge 200. Thank you in advance.

I'm sorry, Dmwolking. I'm not Fred, but I am part of the VN team and maybe I can help.

The whole visual novel project has not gone as anyone had hoped, and I can tell you for sure that no one feels worse about that than Fred. We're close to having something that we can release to backers. It's only book 1, Piro-route, with no story branches, which is a small part of what was originally planned. But it's at least an hour of game play, and it's fun. I think y'all will enjoy it, and I hope it'll go some way toward helping people feel it wasn't a complete failure. Fred just needs to have the time to finish some of the final artwork cleanup. I'm hoping that'll happen over the next couple of months.

I do not know what Fred has in mind for the rewards, but I expect that it's going to be difficult for him to realistically deliver fully there. Even with wonderful folks like you supporting the kickstarter, his patreon, twitch channel, buying stuff from teh megagear store, and buying the MT books, Fred and family are just getting by every month. He's really in a panic over whether they will be able to afford health insurance next year, and with their medical history that's a major concern. He's way behind on shipping orders from the megagear store in part because he'd had to use the shipping money to pay the bills. Though he's scraped some money together and is trying to get caught up there now. Once we get the that book 1 Piro-route release out, I'll poke him about the rewards again and we'll see what he can do at that time.

I'm sorry Fred hasn't replied to your emails. It's not that he doesn't think you're worth replying to, or that he has something to hide. He's embarrassed that he hasn't been able to deliver. He wants to be able to tell you that your stuff is on the way when he replies, so he puts your email aside for a little while until he can say that. But life problems always seem to happen to Fred, and those little delays gradually stretch into big ones. Fred's instinctive reaction when things go wrong is to put his head down and just work harder. I'm not the only friend of his that has poked him about the need to communicate better, especially when things go wrong. But while he understands that intellectually, he still struggles with it.

Fred is a friend of mine, and he's good people. He understands what is right, and if he's not delivering on something it's not intentional, not because he's not working hard enough, and not because he doesn't care. Fred gets shit on a surprising amount on the internets. But that's more than offset by the patient and loyal support of people like you. Fred talks all the time about how MT fans are the most long-suffering fans in the world, and how very grateful he is for you all. You folks are what makes Megatokyo possible.

I'm sorry you've struggled to get answers to your questions. I hope this helped some. And if you have more, feel free to post here or PM me, and I'll try to help as I can.

Paarfi,
Thank you so much for the quick response. I hope my initial post didn't come across as someone who was mad at Mr. Gallagher or the creative team building the VN. I just felt lost, just that simple. I love his work, and I wish I could support him more than I can now or even initially in 2013 with the kickstarter project. I'm just a fan who will continue to wait, although more patiently now. I was afraid my contribution was lost in the net and I didn't want that since in my mind, your work is so fantastic, I didn't want my growing family to miss out on what I can say, I helped contribute to. I have a few friends who still struggle to break out into the artistic world, it isn't easy and I applaud those who have the fortitude to continue with all the negatives out there always trying to bring them down. Thank you again for the explanation, I feel you more than necessarily explained the situation, and I will continue to do what it is I can to support this project. I look forward to seeing how the project turns out, again, thank you.

necro but there are probably many of us "beta testers" and above bottom teir backers still hanging on here and just kinda reading the updates as they come.
although i can't say i remember how long ago the kickstarter began.

necro but there are probably many of us "beta testers" and above bottom teir backers still hanging on here and just kinda reading the updates as they come.
although i can't say i remember how long ago the kickstarter began.

It's been four and a half years and nearly $300,000 and there's nothing to show for it.